Speak!
by Evil-Kitty-Kat-666
Summary: Summary: Mai refuses to talk to anyone since Naru left for England. In fact she doesn't talk at all and no one has seen her smile either. Now Naru's back with a new case... Rated T just to be safe
1. Chapter 1

Ghost Hunt Story: Speak!

A/N: Heyy, This is Kitty and this is my first ever Solo Fanfic (I have helped a friend before) I hope you like it and sorry its short . I accept critisism

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><p><span>Mai POV<span>

He stood there staring me down with his cold blue eyes. No emotion what-so-ever got passed his perfect mask. Not even a hint of sorrow at the fact that his own twin brothers body had been found and he would soon be leaving us…leaving me…for England. I knew it was now or never! Who knew if I would ever see him again? I had to speak!

I told him everything but he shot me down with bad excuse that I didn't love him and that I fooled my heart into loving him in place of his brother. In the end…he left and I was devastated and broken. Everyone else asked me what happened and I tried to tell them…anything, to say I was fine or to pour my heart out and tell them how broken I felt, I don't know which I would have done but I had no time to guess because my voice faded away further with each word I tried to force past my lips and my face cleared of all emotion. No matter how much I moved my lips my voice wouldn't come out and even if I wanted to I couldn't smile. Hidden somewhere in the pain, buried deep within, who knew when I would once again speak? For the last time I had spoken it hurt and I don't want to go through that again. I was nothing to him….I am nothing…..nothing…

2 Years later

Normal POV

After Naru left for England the girl known as Mai ceased to exist. She was there in all physical aspects but it was like her mind stopped working in some ways. She couldn't talk anymore and she couldn't smile. No one had seen her cheerful side for 2 long years. She became like a robot. Perfect at everything, including her studies. Mai was never a dumb girl, despite Naru's beliefs, she was just lazy but Robot Mai removed the laziness and so her true potential was shown. She also did well in studies despite not being able to talk.

Mai also kept in contact with the rest of the SPR gang, although she couldn't talk to them she did meet with them and to them it seemed like she listened. Monk and Ayako were the worst about it, they were always making sure she was ok like a mum and dad. John was the same as always, nice and trying to stop Monk and Ayako's fights. Masako was better than she used to be, she became nicer and cut the snob act, in fact she became the one that would talk to Mai the most despite Mai's state of silence and some would consider them best friends. Finally Yasu, he just never changed he kept his childish pranking ways and convinced himself it was for a good cause because he swore he saw Mai smile a bit after one of his pranks…well after it backfired and got him square in the face.

It was once again the first Wednesday of the month and so it was time for the old SPR gang to meet up chat or in Mai's case observe with the occasional gesture of her hand or random note to let them know she understands. Perhaps however this month might have more in store for our old SPR gang….

Mai POV 

I arrived at the café that we always meet at about 10 minutes early so I walk into the small café and decide to find a seat. I can't talk, so I have learnt sign language but not many people know it so I settle for carrying a notebook around with me to write in so when the girl working in the café walks up to me I write that I would like a table for 5 and that the rest of my group will be arriving soon. She stands there for about 5 minutes first in shock that I can't talk and then she has this sympathetic look on her face where she feels sorry for me. I don't feel sorry for myself though because without talking about pointless things I can focus my mind into my college studies. I'm 17 now and I go to college a year early due to my outstanding performance during high school. I'm taking a few extra courses because I was allowed due to my amazing scores on my finals in high school. Anyway she eventually snaps out of it and leads me to a table and hands me a menu. She leaves me alone to decide on my drinks and food, and as soon as I look up from my menu the rest of SPR are at the door, I wave to them and they see me and head straight over so I continue looking at the menu. In the end I choose chocolate cake with tea. The rest decide on food and drinks as I use my notepad to write it all down so none of it is forgotten. After Monk has ordered for everyone we sit down to eat and chat.

"Hey, so Mai are you okay?" Monk asks a seemingly casual question but I could see the worry in his eyes. He and Ayako always worry about me and I feel bad for making them concerned but it's not like I choose not to talk, trust me I have tried, but every time I try to talk nothing will come out. I guess I'm just too scared to talk again in case it ends in hurt again. I send Monk a note across the table telling him "I'm fine, college is going really well! I'm top of my class again". He smiles at the note but I can see that he would give anything to hear me say that to him in person.

Time passes and we continue to talk, well I send people notes while they talk. Sometimes they seem like they are not sure if my mind is fully functioning because I don't talk but that isn't true. I'm still the same old me on the inside I just can't show it on the outside its very hard to explain but I know that it means one day I will be able to get over this and if I can't, well I don't mind I want to be a writer anyway so it's not like it's the world's most talkative job. As much as it sounds like I'm dwelling on the past, I really want to write ghost stories and I can use my time with SPR to make them seem real. However I don't want to dwell on a certain part of that past. Mostly the ending, I would definitely change that.

Everyone was done with food and drinks and saying their goodbyes, I was about to walk out of the café when I bumped into some tall guy that was just walking in. I bowed in apology obviously unable to say sorry when I heard the tall guy say "geez not even an apology, Japanese people must be getting ruder". I was looking through my bag for my notepad to write a note explaining that I can't talk so I can't say sorry when Monk came up and saw what was happening.

"Sorry Sir, my friend can't talk so she can't apologize properly so allow me to say-…Lin?" Monk had stopped talking to look at the guy properly at the same time that I stopped looking for my notepad. We saw the tall Chinese man who always looked after Naru. I was shocked, though I'm pretty sure it didn't show and I'm pretty sure so was the rest of SPR.

"Mai? Takigawa? Miss Matsuzaki? Miss Hara? John?" Lin said looking shocked and showing emotion on his stoic face for the first time ever "I can't believe we ran into you" Lin said after composing his face again.

"We?" Said Yasu "Oh and thanks for noticing I'm here as well" He pouted a bit about that but I could see that he wasn't that offended at all.

"Yes, we" said a cold cruel voice that I never thought I would have to hear again. In stepped the devil himself the man that left taking away my voice with him.

Naru.

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><p>That was it! Hope you liked it and please review or just story alert it because i would love to know if people are really reading this rubbish See you next time!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Heyy, so this is chapter 2 of Speak! and i just wanna say a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I mean i expected everyone to hate this rubbish story but you guys all made me sooooo happy! :D**

**Also to reply to a question raised in a review. I don't know if anyone is confused by Mai's state but she is exactly like the old Mai on the inside but she can't express it on the outside because last time she did she got hurt so she hides it behind a blank face and silence. I hope that will explain it and as you will see her thoughts are the same as an old Mai...I think. I'm hoping for no out-of-character-ness but no promises. **

**By the way Mai is 17 here and in college (Not last year in high school) and I'm following the manga age so Naru is 2 years older and 19 rather than one year older. **

**Thats all I have to say so a big thanks again to everyone and please enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 <strong>

Recap-

Naru.

End of Recap.

Mai POV

He walked into the café and surveyed the group. His eyes lingered on me for a minute scanning me up and down before landing on my face which I know is devoid of emotion. His eyes swirled with emotions but before I could pick them apart he turned his eyes away from me.

"Perhaps we should leave and head back to the office we have some issues to discuss with all of you," Naru suggested.

I turned to Yasu who was next to me and started signing words to him since he learnt sign language to talk to me. In the end it made us quite close because we could plan tricks to play on Monk together. "Yasu, I need to get some college work done tell _him_ that I can't come discuss his _issues_". Naru must have seen us because he raised an eyebrow at it.

"Ah…Mai-chan says that she can't attend to your _issues_ Naru, she has some **college **work to do," Yasu explained putting just the right amount of sarcasm into the word issues that I would want to if I could talk and adding emphasis to the word college rather than high school where I should be at my age. God bless Yasu. He decided to sign back to me instead of talking out loud because that way our conversation was secret except to me and him and I think John but he wouldn't tell anyone.

"Do you really have work or do you just not want to sit in an office with the demon king" he signed to me. I looked at him wishing I could smile or laugh at his demon king joke. "Well I do have work but it's not due in for at least a week and your right I'm very scared of the great demon king. He might eat what's left of my heart Yasu!" I signed back hoping the joke would work without a tone of voice to it. To my satisfaction he laughed and signed "Fear not my dear lady! I, Yasu the great shall slay the demon…when he stops glaring in my direction with those killer eyes." To mine and Yasu's surprise someone laughed at our little silent chat, and to the utter surprise of everyone, including Naru but he hid it well behind a mask of boredom, it was Lin who was laughing, well chuckling is a better word.

I looked over at him and signed "You know sign language Lin?" He nodded and said out loud " Yes, I took classes back when I was in high school and it seemed to have stuck with me," He almost smiled again and then said "Oh and I won't tell the demon king anything you say." Everyone turned and looked at Naru and he just glared at me and Yasu. Yasu looked nervous but I was as emotionless as ever.

"Anyway if we can get back to the point can the rest of you attend even if Mai cannot?" Naru asked growing impatient. Everyone looked at Naru and most of them glared a little bit with the exception of John, because he was just too nice for that.

"Naru, you expect us to just come back with you after what happened to Mai?" Monk nearly shouted at Naru. From the look in his eyes he was slightly shocked that anyone would talk back to him.

"You can't expect me to believe that I'm the reason for her not talking?" Naru said then added "She is so dumb she probably just forgot how, now would you please dismiss these silly notions and come with me." He scanned the group, no doubt looking for the weak link in the group's resolve. He stopped when his eyes landed on someone. Masako.

"Miss Hara, surely you are not associated with this silliness." He gave her a look and she stared back evenly. She walked over to him and stood directly in front of him. He had a look of victory on his face. Maybe he was proud that he still had her under his control or perhaps just happy that one of 'us' wanted to change sides to be with 'them'. Either way the look of victory soon changed to shock when Masako gave him the shock of his life.

She slapped him.

Right on his left cheek and left a red mark while she was at it. Without saying another word she turned away and walked to me she the stood resolutely beside me and grabbed my hand. No words had to be spoken it was clear what had just happened, it was something that would have been unthinkable 2 years ago when we were both 15 year old girls squabbling over a crush.

Masako had just taken my side against Naru, the object of her past affections.

Naru was still slightly shocked, and even showed it a little bit on his face. None-the-less he gathered his bearings and quickly made his face look bored and like he didn't care that he just got slapped in public. "Well then, since none of you will co-operate I will take my business elsewhere," Naru said while brushing invisible dust off of his black suit jacket.

"Naru-" Lin started to say but was cut off when Naru raised a hand.

"No Lin, it's fine they are free to do what they wish in life, no matter how much money I would be willing to pay them. I saw him glance at me with that statement; no doubt he was remembering the fact that I was an orphan that had to support herself including education fees. I once again turned to my unofficial translator for the convocation and signed to him "Tell the demon king that I am not in need of his money as I still gain money from the book I wrote last year". Before Yasu could even open his mouth someone else beat him to it.

"You wrote a book Mai?" Lin questioned me and I was pleased to see slight shock pass over Naru's smug face. I simply nodded to answer his question the signed to him "It started as a paper on my thesis for human causation for paranormal activity and how the stressed mind can cause normal events to seem paranormal and then my teacher sent it to be published because it was around 50 to 60 pages long then next think I know I was picking an alias to write by and my books were on the shelves on paranormal research labs everywhere." Lin looked impressed after I finished.

"Well congratulations on growing a brain over these two years Mai but if you are not going to help me with this case then we really must be going so we can find some people who can handle the job," Naru obnoxiously stated.

I quickly signed out "who said we wouldn't be able to handle the job demon king?" He just looked at me and said "Mai the only part of that I understood was 'demon king' because I have seen you use it every time you refer to me, I will need someone to translate for me or you need to write it down." I looked at Yasu and he quickly told them what I had said.

"I see, well I assumed you were scared of going on a case after 2 years of doing nothing," Naru said and infuriated me further, I mean who said I did nothing over 2 years. Hello? I wrote a book and got into college for God's sake! He makes it sound like I just sat around waiting for him to return. "No way Naru we could handle it better than 2 years ago, just you wait and see" I signed that while Yasu translated then looked at me confused.

Naru just smirked at me with that handsome yet evil face and said "Excellent, I will see all of you at the office tomorrow at 9AM sharp, I assume you're all fine to go now that Mai agrees." It was then that he turned around and left with Lin following him and I realised I had played right into his hands. My friends were staring at my face in shock and a little bit of awe and at first I wondered why but that's when I noticed that for the first time in 2 years, although it was small and barely there, I was in fact frowning.

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><p><strong>Thats all folks!<strong>

**Chapter 3 might take a while because I haven't started it yet :S I will be working on it soon and they should be on the case by next chapter. Please review and tell me of any mistakes or even constructive critism, I would love to know what you think.**

**See you next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Heyy guys, I'm back with another chapter of Speak! and another huge thank you to those reviewing and story alerting and adding this to favs.  
><strong>**It makes me so happy to know people like my work! **

**Well just one random though before the story: If naru had a song I think it would be that one that goes "I'm sexy and I know it" cuz he is such a narcissistic guy!  
>Let me know if you agree or your suggestions for Naru's song! <strong>

**Also WARNING: There will be swear words from now on, thats why its a rated T. So you have been warned!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Recap-

My friends were staring at my face I shock and a little bit of awe and at first I wondered why but that's when I noticed that for the first time in 2 years, although it was small and barely there, I was in fact frowning.

End of Recap-

Mai POV

After Naru left we all said our goodbyes and agreed we might as well go on one last case together, for old times' sake, before we collectively tell Naru to shove it and leave his emotionless life forever. Besides this also gives us time to show off how our powers have grown…except Yasu, he can research faster now but he still doesn't have any psychic abilities.

I quickly walked to my apartment building, which was bigger than the one I lived in during high school thanks to the money from my book. I went up the stairs and got to my door it was number 19, how ironic that the door number is Naru's age at the moment, the moment he decides to walk back here like nothing ever happened. I'm honestly a little bit pissed that he thinks he didn't do anything wrong and what is up with him acting like such a jerk…well MORE of a jerk. Well whatever his issue is I can deal with it in the morning.

I decide to quickly pack my bags for this case, packing for about 2 weeks since Naru kindly decided to tell us no details about this case, I can only presume he is planning to brief us on the case tomorrow before we head out…or not at all until we're all knee deep in spiritual mess. Well anyway after packing I take a bath and put on my only set of pyjamas that are not packed away in my travel bag, I know I seriously lack pyjamas, as it turns out it's the pink silk night dress that I refuse to take on cases because we tend to end up being rushed out of bed a lot on cases and like I want to be stuck running from ghostly bad guys wearing silky lacy embarrassment. No thank you! So I snuggle down into my warm black and purple covers (oh and don't get me wrong people I'm not going all black is the only colour in my life like Naru, I just read that dark sheets help you sleep better) and before I even realize it I was off into dream land.

DREAM SEQUANCE GO!

_I opened my eyes again and the first though I had was '_oh I'm in a dream'. _Yeah I stopped being all slow about what was happening when these dreams became frequent. Anyway spinning in an awkward circle I look around taking in the darkness and the glowing orbs before I find what I'm looking for._

_"GENE," I shout and yes I mean really talk, it seems like due to the dreams being linked to my spiritual body not my real body and its mostly due to psychic mind power rather than body power I can really talk in my dreams so over the 2 years only Gene has been able to listen to my voice. _

_In case you're wondering Gene is still hanging around because he likes being my spiritual guide and he like hanging out with me in dreamland thus even when his body was buried he didn't disappear, he did however take a short break almost a vacation from his afterlife career of hanging with me to attend his own funeral. He came back with stories about it and his opinion was: not enough crying from Naru. Yup he was totally miffed that Naru didn't even look sad, just emotionless. Anyway I'm totally getting off topic, I watched as Gene walked towards me with a big grin on his face._

_"Nice PJ's Mai," these were the first words he said to me and I looked at what I was wearing. Oh yeah I wear what I was wearing in the real world. Silky lacy embarrassment. _

_"Right back at ya" I say to him noticing for the first time that he is in black PJ bottoms and a very loose (like 2 or 3 sizes too big) long sleeved black shirt. He just grinned more and laughed a bit._

_"Well I'm stuck wearing whatever Naru wears but you chose that little number yourself," He said smug. _

_"Right, so that's why it's so big since your still 15 year old size and he is 19 year old size" I said in a "that explains everything voice". "Wait, I get the whole clothes things but what's up with the teddy bear?" I questioned him after noticing the teddy he is holding by the arm in his left hand. _

_"Oh this? This is Mr Snuggles!" he said in a proud tone of voice._

_"I see and he is your teddy bear," the question ended more as a statement in the end but Gene just gave me a giant grin. _

_"Nope!" he said in a sing-song tone. "This is Naru's childhood bear that he still sleeps with." _

_I couldn't stop myself, I burst out laughing (yes I can laugh and show emotion here just like I can talk). Wouldn't you laugh if you just found out your icicle of an ex-boss actually still cuddled a bear at night? Well I did._

_"Oh yeah make sure you definitely don't let Naru know you found this out," Gene said in a tone that sounded a lot like he would not care if Naru found out. "Also you should be waking up soon so I'll just say this right now, you and Naru have to be the most careful on this case you're going on, okay?" I nodded after he said that and he smiled and started fading away. _

END OF LA DREAM!

I woke up and looked at my alarm clock that was currently screaming at me to get up. I was shocked it was already 8:30 so I had half an hour to get ready and get to the old SPR office. How can it be that I haven't been late for anything for 2 years, yet as soon as Naru is back I'm late again?

It must be the curse of Naru! No one can be more perfect than Naru so when he's near the perfect people become imperfect. Makes sense to me! Anyway I Have a quick shower using my favourite perfumed body wash and brush my still short hair into two short pigtails. I dress in some three-quarter lengths and a fitted t-shirt with a zip-up hoodie over the top with it left unzipped. I grab my night bag and run out the door not bothering with breakfast since I'm late.

As I was running down the street I looked calm and emotionless but in my head I was panicking about it and about how the gang will react, I mean I have been little miss perfect for 2 years now I'm starting to act like old late all the time Mai again? They will probably freak. I manage to arrive at the office at exactly 9:05 and I walk in to find…Naru glaring at me. Yup standing glaring at the door waiting for me to walk through, everyone else is behind him sitting on the sofas and as predicted most of them look freaked out that perfect little Mai was late, the exception being Lin because he doesn't know about perfect Mai so this is still normal for him.

"Nice of you to join us Mai, but I fairly sure I said to meet at 9AM not to meet at some time near 9AM" Naru said in an annoying condescending voice that made me want to punch him.

I quickly signed "Yeah yeah yeah, blame your brother," wanna know why I signed it instead of looking for my notebook? Well 2 reasons: first Naru doesn't know Gene is still hanging around and I'm keeping it that way until I can reveal it in a dramatic and possibly pissing off Naru way and second I know, thanks to yesterday, that Naru doesn't know sign language therefore it pisses him off that I know something and others such as Yasu know something that he doesn't and at the moment I really enjoy pissing Naru off. I'm evil so sue me.

Lin however saw my comment (wow that sounds weird) and looked shocked so I quickly made a shhh gesture and he nodded. Hehe so Lin is on my team.

"Mai, tea," Naru said and I couldn't help but think wow how long has he been waiting to say that again. I started walking to the kitchen area absentmindedly signing "Blah blah blah your needs" and finding myself pleasantly surprised to see Yasu laughing and John trying not to laugh, I knew he knew sign language! I even saw a ghost of a smile on Lin's ever stoic face. I guess I'm just that funny.

I finished making the tea and quickly and efficiently delivered it to everyone then took the only open seat right next to Naru considering Ayako was sitting next to Monk and Masako was sitting next to John. Yasu sat next to Lin pouting that he wanted to sit next to his lovely Monk-kins and Lin was just typing on his ever present Laptop. Once everyone was settled and drinking tea, Naru took a sip himself then began his speech.

"This case that I have taken is from a friend of my father, his friend owns a British style mansion here in Japan and he just recently began residing in it over here. During the short time his niece has stayed there and nearly got killed, at the moment we don't know the ghosts targets because a young man was also a victim, we also don't know much about the history of the house. I will need Yasuhara to research for me. As for the rest of us we need to be very careful this ghost could be after any of us and I don't want anyone to get hurt. Understood?" We all just nodded.

We then headed down to the van that had already been loaded with the equipment. Monk said everyone except one could fit in his car so one person would have to ride with Naru and Lin in the van. That when the group of most trusted friends betrayed me. They sent me in the van. They used the excuse that I was as silent as them anyway so I might as well go with them. I couldn't really argue to that. So we all got in our vehicles and started off. I stayed awake during the whole journey which must have surprised Naru and Lin because I would normally fall into a sleep as soon as the van was moving but this time I wasn't tired and unless Gene needed me I wouldn't fall asleep.

Soon we arrived at the mansion and I think even that word was an understatement because this place was HUGE. It was a giant western style mansion with marble pillars and everything. My face remained blank but on the inside I was marvelling at the design. Naru went to greet the man at the door while I helped Lin and Monk with equipment.

I took a light box of wires so that I could get used to this hauling equipment around again and if I dropped it at least it's just wires for now. I walked up the steps to the front door with Masako happily chatting at my side, I would sometimes nod or shake my head when she asked something. It's nice that she is no longer stuck up and now we can be friends. We both walked through the big double doors of the mansion (I'm serious) and both fell to the ground clutching our heads in perfect sync. The others saw us and ran up yelling our names, even Naru looked worried for us. Shocker.

Masako and I sat up as the pain in our heads subsided, I looked at Masako and she nodded.

"There is a great feeling of pain and sorrow in this house but I can pinpoint its location" she said in a weak voice. I turned to John and signed "take her to base and let her sit down she looks sick." He nodded his head and left holding onto Masako so she could walk as well. Yasu looked at me and said "Are you ok Mai?" I just nodded my head and picked up the wires I had dropped.

"This I going to be one hell of a case" I thought as I headed to base.

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><p><strong>Well thats it! It was a little bit longer this time aswell :) <strong>

**Just so you guys know I will be going back to college after a week off (we call it half term in england) and that means more work an less story time so it wont be regular updates but I WILL NOT stop this story. **

**See you next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Heyy guys! So this is chapter 4 and i am amazed by the amount of people still reading this story, so thank you for reading and reviewing  
>Sorry for any mistakes you may find i did cheak it but some escape me. <strong>

**So thats all this time no random babble from me so enjoy!  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Recap-

"This I going to be one hell of a case" I thought as I headed to base.

End of recap-

Mai POV

It took 3 hours! That's right it took us 3 bloody hours to set up base and do you wanna know why? It's all because Naru claimed it was all wrong about six times, and not only did he not offer to help the lazy bastard didn't even tell us what was wrong just that it was wrong. So every time we rearranged monitors we would have no idea if it was better or worse.

Needless to say by the end of the three hours me, Monk, Yasu and even Lin were pretty worn out, though Lin didn't quite collapse into the sofa like me and Monk did. Yasu did collapse but onto Monks lap, I was expecting Monk to push him off pretty quickly but he must have been too tired because Yasu sat there for about 10 minutes before being pushed and falling onto the floor with an ungraceful thump.

"Hey Mai, you don't look tired at all," Monk said this to me while turning his head to look at my emotionless face. I just looked at him and signed "dumbass" Yasu was quick to translate for me and when he looked confused and sad at my harsh words he also gave him a sarcastic look and said "Monk when in these 2 years has Mai ever shown emotion from a smile to being tired?" Understanding dawned on Monks face and he glared at the back of Naru's head, no doubt remembering who made me this way.

Despite his attempts to look uninteresting in our conversation about my…condition, I could see his paying attention and all I could think was "I wonder if he feels guilty at all?"

"_Oh yes, he does but he would never admit it, he even refused to say he was guilty about putting a worm down my shirt when we were ten but I could tell he was when I fell down the ditch because of it and fractured my wrist." _This was all said by an unmistakable voice in my head so I thought back to it "Gene? How are you contacting me when I'm not asleep?"

"_Congratulations Mai! You are the proud owner of upgraded psychic powers and how do you feel about this? _Gene said this to me in a game show host kind of voice and I was internally laughing at his ridiculousness. "So wait!" I thought back to him "Naru seriously pulled a prank on you?"

"_Yes! Not that I found it funny, besides _that's_ what you question me about not your powers?" _Gene said to me clearly irritated that I found his past pain amusing. "Well you pretty much summed up the powers thing, an upgrade I'm not that surprised, well not nearly as surprised as I am about Naru acting like a normal child" I thought back. "_Well whatever, by the way they have been calling your name for about 5 minutes now and you look insane so have fun explaining that, bye!" _with that Gene checked out for now and I focused back on the rest of SPR who were staring at me like I was crazy. Damn you Gene!

I gave an awkward wave to let them know I was no longer totally checked out and Naru looked at me suspiciously. "What were you doing Mai?" Naru said turning everyone's attention to me. I thought about it for a minute and then came to my decision: say or rather sign whatever I want because he can't understand what I'm saying. I'm starting to love this!

"Nothing much, just talking telepathically to your brother through my improved psychic powers" I signed to him watching Lin's eyes widen a fraction and Yasu smirk as soon as he saw what I was doing.

"She said none of your business nosy Naru-chan" Yasu said on my behalf despite the fact that I had said nothing like that.

"Well Mai space out on your own time, right now we need to start this case," Naru said this before looking down at his folder and adding "Oh and Mai please write down what you want to say from now on I don't like getting second hand information." He glared directly at Yasu when he said this and Yasu hid behind Monk who sidestepped so that Yasu was once again in the full force of the glare.

Meanwhile I dug around in my bag and pulled out my notepad then wrote out "ok Naru from now on all messages will be in this format," I them held it up for Naru to see and got the pleasant sight of confusion passing over his features. Lin looked up at what I had written and then looked at Naru "Tell her," he said, and that was all, he really is a man of few words.

The group turned to stare at Naru and Ayako said "Tell us what?"

"I can't read kanji very well," Naru said in a small voice while he buried his head in his folder.

Everyone looked to me and their faces were left gaping. I realised I was smirking ever so slightly at the fact that there were 2 imperfections to Naru. This was making him seem more and more human. So he couldn't read my kanji and he couldn't understand my sign and didn't want a translator….well only one thing to do. **"That's fine Naru, I can write like this."** I wrote this is perfect neat English handwriting. I couldn't speak English due to not speaking for two years but I did learn to read and write it. Naru and Lin were both left slightly shocked as I guess they still were not used to smart Mai who is no longer an airhead. **"You do remember I wrote a book? Well it was originally in English."** I wrote.

"What is your writing alias Mai? If you don't mind me asking," Lin asked me and I wrote down in English **"Well I wanted something similar to my real name so I made it Mia Thomas, I was told to pick a more English name." **Lin just nodded at this before looking to Naru and saying "Wasn't that the book you read last year Naru? Because your Father gave it to you."

Naru looked up from his folder and said "I think so but I can't be sure I read a lot of books in a year." Lin looked at Naru and then smirked "Really? I thought you would remember because _I _distinctly remember you talking to me about how much of a genius Mia Thomas was and how you would love to meet her and discuss paranormal psychology." Naru looked back down at his folder and I'm sure I smirked again. Wow this was so weird, 3 displays of emotion on my face after 2 years of nothing all within 2 days of Naru arriving. I'm sure the team are starting to get hopeful that the old Mai would come back soon and to be honest I'm starting to hope I will smile again soon.

"Well," Naru said clearing his throat, "I think we should start taking temperature readings and talk to some of the vic-"

Naru was cut off by a high pitched scream coming through the corridors. Everyone jumped up quickly heading towards the source of the noise, me and Naru lead the way and quickly out run the rest of the group. We ran up the stairs to a kitchen on the second floor, the house had four floors so I'm not that surprised to find a kitchen on the second floor.

Once we ran inside we saw a girl about 13 years of age being cornered by what looked like….her shadow? Although this was weird I wasted no time thinking about it as I saw the shadow had a knife, most likely from the kitchen draw, and the girls already had small cuts on her arms. I closed my eyes focusing on my spiritual power and chanted the words to the warding spells in my head while making the seal with my hands and finally I finished by still focusing all of my spiritual energy and this time focusing it on pushing the shadow creature away then I said the nine cuts in my head while making the motions. The shadow disappeared leaving a normal shadow in its place. I had banished the ghost without saying a word.

Naru was soooo gonna want an explanation.

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><p><strong>thats all for now and chapter 5 will be up as soon as i write it because collage work comes first but in my free time i will be writing some.<strong>

**So R&R people! (I have always wanted to say that :P) **

**See you next chapter! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Heyy Guys, so please dont kill me! I know this chapter is loooong overdue and I really hope you forgive me. Reason number one is mock exams of doom and i was and still kinda am failing chemistry soooo bad and reason number 2 is pure laziness. **

**So I'm hoping that the fact that this is my longest chapter ever and that the plot for chapter 6 is already done and i will start typing it ASAP will make up for the lateness. **

**Just so you know in the story bold is english, **_italics are dreams/flashbacks/mind coversations_ **and **normal is just the story od in speech Japanese.

**So on with the story!**

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><p>Chapter 5<p>

Recap-

Naru was soooo gonna want an explanation.

End of recap-

The next morning I woke up nice and early since I had no dreams involving a twin and a whole lot of paranormal panic. As I had a shower, again using my favourite scented body wash that I had brought with me, my mind had drifted back to the interrogation last night.

*FLASHBACK*

_Once we had calmed down the girl she ran out of the kitchen presumably to lock herself in her room. I saw Naru was about to leave and go after her obviously to interrogate the poor girl, but I convinced him to wait at least until tomorrow so she could calm down. Of course the fact that I signed the whole message and Lin , who had burst into the kitchen just as I pushed the shadow out, had to translate pissed him off and he diverted his interrogation to me. _

_So we all walked at a much saner less someone-might-die pace back to base, I made some tea for everyone before the flaming Naru could demand some and he told me to get my pad and start explaining. So I started out by writing "__**What do you want to know?**__" I had the pleasure of watching irritation flicker across his eyes although it didn't show properly._

_"You know what I want to know Mai but in case you really are that dumb I will specify for you, how did you push away that shadow without saying the warding spells out loud?" Naru said it in a slow tone of voice as if he was dumbing it down for me, which was ridiculous soon he will have to learn that calling someone who is top of their early college class and has published a book at age 16 is not dumb. _

_I let myself show a smirk on my face and wished I could laugh at how Yasu and Monk gasped while John, Masako and Ayako just looked shocked. I'm starting to think they should get used to this showing facial expression thing it seems the smirks and frowns are here to stay. Then I wrote in English __**"Awww something little Naru-Naru doesn't know?**__" Only Lin and Yasu snickered at this because it seems that the others couldn't read English very well except maybe Masako but she was hiding behind her sleeve and I couldn't tell if she was fighting a smile or not. Naru himself did not look impressed in fact he looked….silently pissed, the best kind of pissed! _

_I decided that was enough annoying him or I would never get to bed….although all this annoying him was fun revenge for what he did to me. I wrote out "__**Okay! Let the great expert Mia Thomas tell you this great advice. The words are not needed! I with a little help from an anonymous source have worked to find out that the words are a way for the warder to focus their spiritual energy and now that I am focused I can easily make the hand signs to pinpoint the location, focus my energy and BAM! No more ghost in the room. This dear Naru is only one way my powers have increased and adapted over the years.**__" I finished it and handed the page to Naru to read and keep in his notes. Then I remembered something and wrote PS the words are helpful if they are spoken in your mind for an extra power kick so long as you can focus on your energy at the same time" I finished that note and also handed it over to Naru who was looking thoughtful….that is never a good sign. _

_"Mai," Naru finally spoke after thinking in silence for about 15 minutes "You mentioned your powers have grown in other ways? Like what?" _

_This was going to be a long night I thought. Then I came up with a plan, if I show him my biggest power change he might forget the rest and just leave it till later! Genius Mai! So promptly I set my pen down on the coffee table and then stared at it. Naru also stared obviously expecting something to happen and then…the pen flew up and hit his face! _

_"Naru!" Lin shouted obviously blaming the only PK user in the room. Then Yasu giggled….seriously a 19 year old BOY giggled. Lin suddenly looked very confused and Naru glared at everyone including Lin._

_"It wasn't me, why on earth would I hit myself in the face with a pen?" Naru said in his think-it-through-you-idiot tone of voice he normally reserved for something I had done. _

_Lin was about to say something probably something like "who was it then Mr only-PK-user-in-the-room?" when the pen lifted into the air and over to me again. Naru was the first to catch on and I could almost see the light bulb above his head._

_"Mai, you did that?" Naru sounded like he was supposed to say it as a statement but it sounded like a question in the end. I slowly clapped my hands to show I thought he was being slow. _

_"Mai seems to have developed PK-ST over the years and now can move stationary objects quite well," Yasu said in a very serious tone but I saw the danger coming from the glint in his glasses. "Though you should have seen her last year when she first got it, she could barely stop stuff from flying away from her but somehow she tamed it within a week" Yasu looked confused about this and I understand why I mean I had never told any of them that Gene was the one to help with that and also the anonymous source that allowed me to figure out some of the finer details to my new powers. Not that I would tell Naru…unless I signed it because he wouldn't know what I said. _

_Instead of seeing if Naru was actually capable of imploding due to frustration I decided to instead write down "__**The same anonymous source helped me train my new found powers**__." After I handed it over to Naru he quirked an eyebrow then turned back to me "Who is this source?" He questioned me. "__**Anonymous…Duhhh,**__" I wrote back and again he looked close to the imploding, instead though he kept his cool and looked at me and said "I'm your boss, I have a right to know who." _

_That irritated me because it was technically true so I put down my pad and signed instead "It was your dolt of a brother and he bullied me while I was learning!" I saw Lin smile faintly at this and Yasu just looked at Naru's face then burst out laughing, it was pretty funny. I grabbed my pad again and wrote down "__**There told you**__."_

_"I'm not impressed Mai, but you might as well go to bed if you are not going to provide useful information." Naru said after calming down again, not that he ever looked at all ruffled by my annoying responses; he always kept a calm face. "That goes for everyone, we might as well go to bed and start questioning in the morning, it was a long drive here so get lots of rest and be up by 7 o'clock tomorrow." Naru said looking at everyone. "Oh and Mai wait here for a second, everyone else dismissed."_

_I quickly signed to Yasu and Lin…and John I guess, "Noooo, the demon king wants to eat my soul!" I was pleased to see 2 of the 3 laugh or smirk and even John had a small smile. _

_"Mai come over here and stop calling me demon king!" Naru snapped at me and I immediately looked around at him. _

_Naru then turned away from me and started looking through his bag of…books? I don't know what he carries around in it but books seems like a good guess. He turned back to me eventually and I saw he was holding a small silver object in his hand. It was attached to a chain. He held it out to me and I found that it was a whistle. So he carries books and a whistle apparently._

_I grabbed my pad off the table and wrote "__**You buy me such pretty jewellery!**__" his response was a cold look that sent a shiver up my spine. "It's for your own protection, you always seem to hurt yourself and can't scream for help anymore so I thought…" He trailed his sentence off but I could fill in the gap, he was worried about me, no matter the past between us he still cared about my safety. _

_"__**Thank you Naru.**__" I wrote and put the whistle around my neck. I left the room for bed but looked back and gave him a small, very very small, but 100% genuine smile._

*FLASHBACK END*

Thinking about it made me happy again; it made me think that we could maybe get along again and be friends.

"_Or more than friends!" _said an annoying voice in my head.

"_Shut up Gene and go away! I'm going to go to base so we can start work_" I sent back as a thought. After that I put on my new whistle and walked to the base, wearing my new three-quarter length shorts and a tight fitting t-shirt. It was 6:59 when I arrived. Bet Naru will be shocked.

"Mai," Naru said, "Here comes the shock" I thought "tea" Naru finished. Damn you Naru where is my shock!

"_Pfft he won't be shocked by you being early not after the PK power he saw_" Gene spoke again.

"_Damn you're right, and I liked shocking him as well_," I sent back as I started making tea in the "Tea corner" as I called it. It also held other drinks both hot and cold and healthy snacks and some chocolate I stashed there, by the primary use of the corner was to help Naru's tea addiction.

"_You could always tell him about me, that would shock the hell out of him,_" Gene said in a tone that made me think this was starting to become revenge against Naru for past grievances.

"_You know what for now I'm just gonna make tea and wait for the others to get here_," I sent back as I finished up making the tea and started walking over to where Naru sat. I silently handed him his tea and his eyes suddenly flashed to my chest. Wow.

I never knew that Naru could be a pervert, I mean Gene sure he is like a perverted older brother…..which is a VERY strange relationship if you think about it, but Naru seems too cold to be like a normal teenager.

"I see your wearing the whistle, that's good at least I will know when you are in trouble," Naru said after a while then he stopped staring at the spot on my chest where I now realised the whistle was. I simply nodded my head and walked over to the sofa with my own tea to wait for the others.

Turns out I didn't have to wait long the first through the door was Lin who had apparently been out already looking over all the camera to make sure they were all hooked up correctly. It makes me wonder what time Lin actually gets up in the morning… Anyway next to come through the door was Yasu, who looked slightly too hyper for it to be morning, He bounced over to the corner to make some coffee for himself and I was slightly worried about how hyper he would be AFTER the caffeine if this was the hyper before moment. Masako arrived next alongside John, it appears that there rooms are right next to each other and they met up while leaving so they walked together. I quickly made some tea for both of them and they sat on a sofa together sipping on their tea and continuing some conversation that they had been having on the way over here. The last two that arrived was Monk and Ayako who like John and Masako came in together looking very tired and arguing furiously, it was something about Monk not "barging into Ayako's room in the middle of the night and asking for a teddy bear". I didn't really care about what they were arguing about because they always seem to argue about something and it made me laugh internally thinking about what Gene said about Naru's little brown bear called Mr Snuggles. I thought I might as well join them because well …I was bored.

I grabbed my mini-pad out of my pocket; when you can't talk you learn to have a lot of pads on you. I walked over and wrote out "Why did Monk want a teddy bear?"

Ayako read it and said "He was scared and wanted something to hug, he thought every shadow was the ghost,"

"Yeah, well you fail as a girl because you had no teddy bear to offer" Monk shouted at her.

"That's because I am a grown woman not a child! Like you!" Ayako shouted back despite the fact that she was sitting right next to him now that they had taken a seat on the sofa I had vacated earlier. I stared around the room and noticed that the two sofas were occupied and Lin and Naru took the two chairs in front of the monitors so without much fuss I sat on the floor near Naru so I could still see some of the monitors out of the corner of my eye and still talk to Monk and Ayako on the sofa next to me. It had NOTHING to do with sitting near Naru.

"_That a lie and you know it!_" Gene's voice rang through my head but I ignored him this time and focused on Monk and Ayako who were still fighting.

"Oh yeah I must have forgotten you're and old hag so you wouldn't have cute things like teddy bears," Monk said and smirked at her

"Well if I'm so old why don't you just ask Mai and wake her up at 3AM!" Ayako screamed back at him while hitting him on the head with her fist.

"Yeah maybe I can just hug my cute little Mai!" Monk exclaimed while pulling me up into a huge hug. I noticed Naru glaring at Monk and I assumed it was because of all the noise he was making and that he was squeezing the life out of his tea girl.

I quickly brought my new whistle up to my mouth and blew it as loud as I could right next to Monk's ear. This made Monk drop me and I fell onto my butt, I grabbed my mini-pad again and wrote "Hey look, the ghost whistle works as a rape whistle!"

Monk shouted "Hey, I wasn't!" while Lin told Naru what I wrote, as it was in Japanese and not English, and I saw amusement flicker through his cold eyes.

Monk then sat down next to Ayako again and mumbled to himself while everyone else laughed.

Once the laughter died down Naru stood and addressed the group and started dishing out workloads. Masako and John were sent to walk the grounds of the house and see if anything was in any particular spots and they had to exorcise all of the spots there was something. Monk and Ayako were sent to take temperatures of all the rooms and to find the owner of the mansion and his niece and send them here for an interview. Yasu volunteered to go to the library in the closest town and find information about the history of the house. Lin was told he had to drive Yasu to the library since it was a fair distance away and Yasu couldn't drive, he had tried learning but apparently Yasu plus cars just didn't mix. Once everyone had left I turned to look at Naru and pointed to myself.

He seemed to get the message because he answered me with "I'm keeping you near me for your own safety and I need someone to write notes on the interviews since Lin isn't here at the moment and I don't know when he will be back."

I didn't know what to do because I was a little insulted that he thought I couldn't take care of myself but still I didn't mind being alone with Naru….it's not that I still love him, I just want to be friends again….that's all I swear and if Gene says otherwise he is a big liar!

After a few minutes of not too awkward silence the owner of the estate, Mr Hill, who was British but just moved to Japan with his niece after her mother and father died in a freak accident arrived. The niece was the girl who was attacked yesterday; she had light brown hair and bluey green eyes. She looked to be around the age of 13 and she looked terrified. I immediately went into caring Mai mode and wrote her a note saying "**Are you ok? Do you want a drink, sweety?**" I wrote it in English since Naru said she just moved from England with her uncle.

She nodded her head and I got up and got her a glass of juice and I grabbed some chocolate and other sweets. I walked over and handed the girl her juice and offered her some of the sweets from the plastic bowl I had put them in, she happily took a lollipop.

Naru cleared his throat and said "Can we please get this interview started?"

I looked at him and just nodded grabbing a larger notepad from the table for notes and then sat down next to him and across from Mr Hill and the little girl.

"**Mr Hill can you please start with any information you might have on this house and what has been happening here?**" Naru said in English so that Mr Hill wouldn't translate the conversation for his niece later who would most likely want to know what happened.

"**Your assistant can take notes if I speak in English, I can speak Japanese if it's easier**" Mr Hill said looking at me.

In reply I wrote in English "**I can understand English fine Sir, thank you for your concern though**" Mr Hill just smiled at me after reading the message.

"**Ok then, I will start with what I know of this house, for 30 years it has been in my families possession and until recently my parents, of which my mother was of Japanese descent, lived here and as far as I can tell they were happy, she lived alone after my father passed away 10 years ago though he died of a heart attack not anything suspicious. My mother died 3 months ago simply of old age as she was well in her 90's so again nothing suspicious. I decided to move here as a job offer came up a month ago and it seemed perfect since the house belonged to me as my mother's will stated. 2 weeks before the move my brother and his wife died in a traffic accident. Anne was at home with her babysitter and was safe but now had no guardians. I was my brother's only sibling and his wife was an only child whose parents died a while back. I couldn't stop the move to Japan because the job was already mine so I filled the forms in the 2 weeks I had and became the legal guardian of Anne and brought her with me. However once we arrived Anne complained that she could hear a woman crying. I thought she was just having trouble with the situation. But then she said she felt like she was being watched all the time and she heard the woman saying things that she didn't understand. She started getting scratches and attacked by nothing.**" Here Mr Hill was interrupted by Anne.

"**It wasn't nothing! It was my shadow!**" She shouted to her uncle. When I heard her voice I realised she was a lot younger than she looked. She sounded around 9 or 10 but looked so mature, I guess losing both of your parents forces you to grow up fast, I can relate to that.

**"Can you explain that for me?"** Naru questioned the girl.

She nodded and said **"Well when I'm walking around my shadow will feel like another person watching me then when I'm alone it changes to the shaped of an older lady and she starts shouting things in Japanese and I don't understand her, then she attacks me but she looks so sad about it. I wish I could help her."** She finished looking down sadly.

**"Naru do you think the ghost could be hiding in shadows to move around and spy on its victims?"** I quickly wrote a note to Naru. He read the note and just nodded while still looking thoughtful so I assumed that means he was thinking the same thing.

"**Is that everything?**" Naru asked them. Both Mr Hill and Anne nodded and then got up to leave the base room. Before Anne left I offered her another sweet and she took it while smiling, it was nice to see her smile and not look terrified.

"Looks like kids still love you even without your amazing smiles" I heard Naru say from behind me. I was shocked for 2 reasons. Reason number 1 Naru just complemented me even if he didn't realise it because he called my smiles amazing and 2…I was alone with Naru until the others came back to base.

This sucks!

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><p><strong>There you have it! It sucks right? <strong>

**Well i hope you enjoyed enough to R,R,R&R thats rest,relax, read and review! Not read,run,run and run! I wanna hear feedback please!**

**Loving you guys always and see you next chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey people so yay for finally updating! Sorry it's been awhile I had alot of coursework and some exams...college sucks**

**So anyway I have finally updated and I was gonna say when i get to 77 reviews (random nuber but i love the number 7 so yeah) I would post a one-shot song-fic story...but you guys rock so much we already got to 77 soooo I'm just gonna work on it now and post it soon so look out for it.**

**Also a HUGE thanks to everyone who reviewed and all that stuff. I love you all without further interruptions on with the show!**

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><p>Chapter 6<p>

Recap-

"Looks like kids still love you even without your amazing smiles" I heard Naru say from behind me. I was shocked for 2 reasons. Reason number 1 Naru just complemented me even if he didn't realise it because he called my smiles amazing and 2…I was alone with Naru until the others came back to base.

This sucks!

End of recap-

At first my mind went into meltdown mode, not that my face shows it, but on the inside I'm freaking out about staying here in this awkward silence. Before I can totally lose my mind Naru finally decides to speak and says "You can have the time until the others come back as free time…just don't leave the room," He then turned away and stuck his nose in the case file.

In answer to this I shrug my shoulders despite the fact that he isn't looking. I start to tidy up the coffee table from old tea cups and such. After cleaning them and putting them in the small cupboard. I turn back to the table and spot my bowl of sweets and chocolates still there. I pick up the bowl and look over the contents, a few cherry lollipops some boiled sweets and some chocolates. I pick out a cherry lollipop and unwrap it then pop it in my mouth, cherry lollipops have always been my favourite since I was really little. I was about to put the bowl back over in the kitchen area when a sudden thought occurred.

_I wonder if Naru is a normal teen that like sweets. _Before I knew what I was doing I was walking over to Naru and holding out the bowl of sweets to him in an offering gesture. He turned and looked from me to the bowl then back to me before quickly taking one of the other cherry lollipops and unwrapping it. I walked back to the kitchen and put the bowl down.

"_Ahh, so Noll still can't resist cherry lollipops,_" A familiar voice said.

"_What do you mean?_" I thought back to Gene.

"_Noll had an addiction to cherry lollipops when he was little_," Gene answered back to me.

_"Wow that's strangely…cute_," I sent back to him without thinking it through.

"_Awww little Mai thinks Naru-Naru is cute_," Gene sent back through our connection and I could _feel_ the smirk attached to the message.

"_Just shut up Gene!_" I sent back then cut of the connection with him only to hear Naru shouting "MAI!" at me because I was checked out for so long.

I looked up and faced Naru so that he knew I was no longer in la la land and out of what I can only presume was habit I started to make a cup of tea for him since that's what he normally asked for whenever he says my name.

"No, Mai…I don't need any tea right now," Naru said almost awkwardly. I turned to look at him and I'm sure I smiled at the image of him holding the lollipop…or maybe I just smiled in my head.

I went and grabbed my pad and quickly wrote down "**What's up then?**"

He made a motion for me to sit down in Lin's usual spot next to him near the monitors so I did. "Mai…." He started without looking up from his notes, "I want to formally apologise for the way I have been treating you recently and for any prior indiscretions in our shared past." Naru finished still without looking up at me. I was generally shocked by this because let's face it it's not every day that THE Naru the Narcissist actually apologises for something….it was almost flattering.

I grabbed my pen and started writing back to him **" I should apologise for my attitude as well, it's not your fault I can't talk it's my stupid brain…guess you were right, it is defective**" I quickly handed him the apology with my lame joke at the end.

"I disagree with your judgement about your brain," I heard Naru say after he had read the note " In fact your increase in intelligence has shocked me greatly…I expected to find the same clumsy brainless girl from 2 years ago," He said adding the insult to the last bit of his almost complement. I guess it wouldn't be Naru if he didn't insult me somehow.

Naru looked up and I saw a ghost of a smile cross his features and I felt my own face smile a bit as well. After that we drifted into a comfortable silence where he sat and read notes and books and anything his could…all while eating his cherry lollipop. I sat and watched the monitors while eating my own sweet candy. Well it looked like I was focused on the monitors while I was really having an internal conversation with Gene.

"_So if you didn't catch that me and Naru are sort of friends now_," I thought to Gene

"_Really? Cause last time I checked friends don't have_ those _kind of dreams about one another,_" Gene sent back to me.

"_One time! It happened once and I'm convinced you made me have that dream,_" I thought back to him knowing full well what dream he was referring to. I was blushing furiously in my mind but my outward face remained blank, thank goodness or I would have to make some lie up to Naru.

"_Believe what you want that was all you_," Gene said to me effectively ending this debate "_So now your both 'friends' and believe me I use that term loosely cause we all know you love him, are you gonna tell him you talk to me all the time…or I could if you want, I could totally invade his mind if you want."_ Gene asked me while offering his assistance at the same time.

"No I can tell him," I sent back before cutting off our connection. I looked down and stared at my pad for a minute before starting to write I had managed to write "Naru I must tell you" before we heard a scream and I dropped my pad and pen. I knew that scream well after knowing her for years…it was Masako. I took one look at Naru before running out the door with him behind me.

We ran down the long corridors of the mansion before coming to one of the many sitting rooms. Once we ran through the door the scene I saw scared me. John was across the room slumped against the wall unconscious and the shadow of a woman had Masako hanging in the air by her neck. I wanted to shout out against the shadow for hurting John and for trying to kill my best friend. I opened my mouth but still no sound came out, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't speak! I calmed myself down and focused on my PK power and focused a ball of it into my palm the I opened my eyes to see the ball of light in my left palm, finally I sent it flying at the centre of the shadow woman making sure to miss Masako. The woman dropped Masako who I ran and caught, I was glad she is so light or I would have been squished. I noticed Naru was across the room checking on John.

The spirit or shadow woman was still in the room she stared at Naru then at me before she smiled sadly at us and said in Japanese "I will free you". With that last ominous phrase she left the room.

After I was sure the spirit shadow was gone I turned my attention back to Masako. She was taking deep breaths and I could see the beginnings of a bad bruise on her neck but other than that she seemed ok. I looked at her and realised I didn't have my pad to ask if she was ok and she probably couldn't talk too well with her throat hurting so I decided to hold my thumb up to her in a questioning gesture, I knew she would understand what I was asking because we have been best friends for nearly 2 years now. Masako saw my gesture and made a shaky thumbs up back at me and even managed a weak smile. Once I saw that she was ok I smiled a small smile back and seeing this made her smile widen a bit. I guess everyone is happy that I'm starting to show emotions on my face.

I turned my attention back to John and Naru and saw that John was waking up and looking around a little dazed but otherwise unharmed. "Let's get back to the base and we can figure out what happened." Naru said before helping John up. I helped Masako up and in that fashion we returned to base.

Once we got to the base and everyone was settled with tea or juice, I made Masako have juice and a boiled sweet to help her throat rather than tea, Naru looked over to the desk in front of the monitors and grabbed a pad…I think it was mine…the jerk.

"Ok, can either of you tell me what happened" Naru asked though he asked it in a way that made it sound more like a demand.

"Well you shee," Masako started before being interrupted by Naru.

"I'm sorry Ms Hara I cannot take you seriously while your speech is affected by the boiled sweet Mai gave you" Naru said with a straight face but I could see the amusement in his eyes.

"You do sound a little funny Masako" John said to her. I noticed that Naru had no effect on her but after John said that her cheeks when red before she hid behind her sleeve. Well I wonder when that started…

"While your throat recovers I will ask John for what he can recall of the situation, if that is ok with you Ms Hara?" Naru said while looking at Masako who simply nodded her head so that she wouldn't sound funny again.

"Well then John if you could please" Naru turned to John who was next to Masako on one of the sofas while me and Naru where on the other.

"Right, well me and Masako were checking all the rooms and exorcising any that she sensed were bad but none of the rooms had anything. Masako said that it seemed like only one spirit is here but is quite powerful. So once we stepped into the room Masako felt a strong presence and told me to start my prayers. The next thing I knew our shadows had merged together and formed the shape of a woman who threw me across the room. Before I blacked out I remember seeing the woman grab Masako…Speaking of which, I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to keep you safe Masako." John finished his story by turning to Masako and apologising, which she only shook her head to and told him in a quite whisper that it was fine.

"Hmmm….is there anything else you remember?" Naru asked the two. John shook his head in a no gesture while Masako looked like she remembered something. She looked to Naru and held up one finger in a wait gesture before starting to crunch what was left of her sweet.

Once she was finished she looked at Naru and finally spoke in a slightly raspy voice from her sore throat. "Yes, I remember the ghost shouting things at me," Masako said in a small voice. "She was shouting about freeing us from the pain, but neither of us were hurt until she started attacking us perhaps the ghost has gone mad after death…or she had mental health issues in life." Masako said to us.

I looked over at Naru and saw him looking thoughtful. "There is a possibility at this point we know nothing until Yasuhara returns with his research, I suggest both of you just stay and rest in base for now, once everyone is back we can discuss this properly." After Naru finished his speech he started flicking through the pad. His eyes rested on a page for a while longer than normal but I couldn't read it because my eyelid where starting to close. I let out a silent yawn before falling sideways onto something warm. It was so warm that I snuggled closer to it without thinking and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

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><p><strong>So what did you think? Please do not hesitate to click that big blue review button and let me know.<br>ALSO if I get to 100 review I will make a special for you wither another one-shot of a special Naru POV chapter you guys can pick if we get there.  
>Goodbye for now people of earth and those of you on pluto aswell! <strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Heyy, first of all I would like to apologise for the long wait, and thank you all for your patients. **

**I need to also thank my friend whom this chapter is dedicated to becasue she helped me out when my plot ponies started rnning away, so thank you so much Squirrel!**

**Another note I would like you to check out the summeries at the bottom of this page and vote for the next story to be written after this one is done.**

**Thanks for the continued support and hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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><p>Chapter 7<p>

Recap-

_I looked over at Naru and saw him looking thoughtful. "There is a possibility at this point we know nothing until Yasuhara returns with his research, I suggest both of you just stay and rest in base for now, once everyone is back we can discuss this properly." After Naru finished his speech he started flicking through the pad. His eyes rested on a page for a while longer than normal but I couldn't read it because my eyelid where starting to close. I let out a silent yawn before falling sideways onto something warm. It was so warm that I snuggled closer to it without thinking and immediately fell into a deep sleep._

End of recap-

~*DREAMLAND*~

_I opened my eyes and saw the glowing orbs around me that indicated I was in a dream. I started looking around for the trouble maker also known as Gene. I couldn't find it, and I mean IT, I only saw an image of the house we were currently investigating. I realised this meant that Gene was not here in this dream but was just behind the scenes showing me the images. _

_I walked up toward the house to find that the scene changed around me. I was now inside the house and walking through the endless hallways. I wasn't sure where to head until I heard it. _

_Crying. _

_I followed the sound down the hallways and found myself stopping in front of one of the large master bathrooms. I stopped myself for a second but once the crying changed into heart wrenching sobs I quietly slipped through the door, in dreams I'm like the ghost because I can pass through solid things, and looked around. I found a woman collapsed In front of the tub still wearing her traditional kimono with long black hair tied back in an elegant braid. The rest of the woman looked like a wreck. _

_I looked at her memorising every detail of the dream. She started muttering "why?" over and over. She looked scary it was like her personality was twisting and distorting her. _

"_Death is the only freedom" she whispered, and then I watched as she picked up a previously hidden by her kimono knife and slashed her wrist. She cut so deep that the blood sprayed through the air and covered the room in a blanket of red. I couldn't stay silent any longer and screamed out loud while the woman's lifeless body fell to the floor the knife hitting the tiles with a metallic clang. _

_Once my piercing scream subsided into sobs and tears the dream faded leaving me feeling emotionally drained. I fell to the invisible floor and watched the glowing orbs as they lulled me to sleep. _

_~*END OF DREAMLAND*~_

I started to wake up little groggy from the dream. I wondered why no one had woken me when I was screaming before I realised I must have been silently screaming here in the real world. I lifted my hand to my face and realised it felt sticky from half dried tears. I must have been silently crying as well.

After mentally checking that my body was safe from harm I finally decided to take notice of my surroundings. I finally noticed I was still in base and that it was now dark except for the bright light coming from the monitors. I appeared to be on the sofa I was sitting on when we were talking to Masako and John but I now had a travel blanket draped over my body and my head was resting on a warm pillow….Pillows don't move!

I turned my head slightly and looked up and just as I suspected I saw a sleeping Naru. He must be the only person in the world who can fall asleep sitting up straight with a girl's head in his lap. I quickly got myself off of him when I felt him shift slightly in his sleep. He moaned slightly in his sleep when I moved off of him and I couldn't help but think he looked cute with his guard down like that. I noticed something next to him on the sofa, from its position on the sofa it would have been next to me and I could have been cuddling it in my sleep. It was Mr Snuggles! Naru actually brought his bear on the case with him…I bet he keeps it hidden and was going to tell anyone who saw it that it was mine. Evil genius.

"_You rang?_" Came a voice in my head…and not the crazy kind.

"_What? No, I was thinking that Naru was an evil genius._" I thought back to him.

"_Shame I thought you were acknowledging my clear geniusness that is obviously evil,_" Gene sent to me punctuating it with an evil muahahaha kind of laugh.

"_Says the genius who uses a word that doesn't exist such as 'geniusness'_" I thought to him.

"_It's in my genius dictionary so I understand you might not know the word,_" Gene said the continued "_So you finally got to sleep with Naru, huh?_" Gene said 'sleep with' with an obvious tilt toward the world of adults.

"_GENE!_" I shouted at him _"God, don't say it like that! I just happened to fall asleep on him and Mr Snuggles,_" I said at a much lower volume.

"_He actually brought the bear with him? Damn he is such a dork!_" Gene said back while laughing. "_I heard you thinking he was cute while asleep by the way so don't deny you love him_" he added.

"_Don't listen to my thoughts! Also I thought while asleep while he awake he is egotistical and a jerk,_" I said "_I'm making myself some tea so this conversation is over!_"

"_Don't deny the truth Mai!_" Gene shouted before I shut the connection. What truth? Naru is a jerk and nothing more. I walked over to the kitchen area and started filling the kettle with water for some tea.

"Mai…" I heard Naru say from the sofa, I looked over and saw he was still asleep. Awww he dreams…. "tea" ….scratch what I was thinking he even dreams of being a jerk.

The kettle started making a lot of noise as the water boiled and I noticed Naru beginning to wake up so I grabbed an extra cup so that I could give him the tea he asked for…in his dreams.

Once I had finished the tea Naru had sort of woken up he still looked a little groggy probably due to the fact that he fell asleep sitting up. I grabbed his cup of tea and my own and made my way over to him. I put my cup down on the small coffee table so I could tap Naru to let him know I was there…he looked kind of asleep still.

I tapped him and he turned his head to look at me and I silently handed him the tea… he took it and immediately took a sip, it seemed to wake him right up…I had a theory that he ran on tea and now I'm positive I was right.

"I definitely needed this," I heard Naru mutter as he took another sip.

I grabbed my pad that had been left on the coffee table and looked around spotting a pen on the monitor table I used my PK to make it fly over to me. I quickly scribbled out "**Yeah you ordered it in your sleep.**" After showing him the note he simply smirked at me and said "Mai I know I'm attractive but watching me sleep is just creepy," He them went back to his tea as if he hadn't just said the most narcissistic and evil thing ever!

"**I was not watching you sleep I had just woken up!**" I wrote back to him.

"Ah yes, about that thank you so much for falling asleep on me yesterday evening," He said to me in a sarcastic tone of voice "The others found it quite funny when they came back to base to see you cuddled up to me."

"**I didn't mean to!**" I defended myself before coming up with and evil idea "**It won't happen again besides I know you prefer cuddling with Mr Snuggles!**" I wrote to him before grabbing said bear and giving it a big hug and a kiss on its fuzzy face for good measure. After reading the note and then staring in horror at me hugging and kissing his bear.

"Give him back!" Naru said calmly before snatching the bear from my grasp "How did you even know about this?" Naru asked while narrowing his eyes at me.

Thinking fast I wrote down "**Lin told me**" and hoped to any higher power out there that Lin would cover for me…again. I then wrote down "**So when the others returned did you get any new information on the house or the ghost?**" I was obviously trying to change the subject but I hoped Naru wouldn't notice.

Naru quickly placed Mr Snuggles into his bag that was ever present at base and then turned back to me. He stared at the pad I was holding seeming to not see the writing yet, after a while his eyes lost their glazed look and he read the note. He finally spoke to me to answer my question "No, the group chose to go through the information in the morning when all of the team were awake," At the end of his sentence he gave me a pointed look indicating that I was, in fact, the only team member asleep.

While I was lost in my thoughts of how I could much easier read his face than I could 2 years ago I didn't notice Naru stalking up to me until he was right in front of my face, my normal reaction would have been to jump back blushing, but that was my old self instead I calmly looked up at him, my eyes asking the unspoken question. Naru reached out his hand and grabbed my pad before I could do anything, he started flicking through the pages to some of the older notes, he suddenly stopped on a page and ripped it out.

"Mai, I wanted to ask you about this half-finished note, I found it yesterday when I was talking noted on the attack." Naru said showing my note that I had started writing to tell him about Gene.

I think a flicker of shock passed over my face before it settled back into its normal emotionless mask.

"_Hey Gene? I'm gonna tell him and I think he is gonna be PISSED!_" I sent a quick thought to Gene.

"_Go for it Girl! He can't stay pissed forever…not when he loves you so!_" Gene thought back before disappearing.

"Mai! Stop spacing out and tell me," Naru snapped at me getting impatient

I snatched the pad from him and started writing down everything from Gene never leaving my dreams to me now being able to communicate with him while awake. I convinced myself that although Naru might get angry it's better for him to know because Gene is his brother and he has a right to know about his brother's spirit.

I passed the finished note to him and watch as his eye seemed to darken with what I can only guess was anger at me not telling him this sooner.

"_He could also be jealous that I still talk to you and get to hear your voice,_" Gene's voice broke into my mind but I quickly cut him off without saying anything to him…now just wasn't the time, I was watching Naru waiting for some kind of response.

He didn't do anything he just stared at the note and it was starting to freak me out, if he got mad I could handle it but this calm rage filled silence was unbearable.

I decided that the silence had gone on for much too long and changed that with a different kind of silence, I pulled the pad from his hand using my PK then wrote on it "**Naru I nearly forgot I had a dream,**" He looked up at my face then in a cold business like tone of voice asked me to describe the dream. I wrote him about the woman and he decided we should wait for Yasu to come and tell us more on this.

Despite how early it was when we woke up we didn't have to wait long for the others, Lin was the first to enter the base at 7am and by 8:30 the rest of the group had entered, Masako sporting a nasty looking bruise on her neck.

I made everyone a morning beverage some having coffee, some tea and Masako opting for orange juice since her throat was still sore and she was worried hot tea would only make it worse.

Once everyone was settled and Monk had finished giving me his daily bear hug, he had decided until I smiled I was getting one everyday no matter what, and Monk had also received his daily whack on the head by Ayako's ever present handbag, we finally got down to business. First Naru recited my dream to everyone and they all decided she was the ghost we were dealing with, though she seemed very good at hiding because Masako could only sense her presence and not her location.

After that we moved our attention to Yasu who had a fairly thin stack of research considering it was him and he normally brought half the library back with him.

"Okay first of all I would like to say there are not many records of this place in the library so I couldn't find much." Yasu said to start off.

"So what could you find?" Monk asked.

"Well I found out that this house isn't that old, it was only built 42 years ago by an English couple who wanted to move to Japan." Yasu said.

"That explains the western design of the place," John said while the rest of the group nodded.

"Right well the couple were very wealthy, obviously you can tell just by looking at the building, and they had a son who was later arranged to marry a rich Japanese couples daughter." Yasu finished looking at the group.

"Arranged marriages must suck! I'm glad I told my parent no arranged marriages when I turned 16," Ayako said reminding us all that she was from a wealthy doctor family.

"Well from what I could find the marriage happened and then…." Yasu trailed off.

"And then?" Naru asked impatiently.

"Well then I don't know what happened all the records after that were destroyed," Yasu said looking at the group perplexed.

"Hmm, well it's obvious that something happened that made the Japanese daughter kill herself while in this house so it must have been after her marriage. Do you happen to know her name?" Naru asked Yasu.

"Yeah, but I only have a first name, it was Hana," Yasu said after flicking through the papers in his hands again.

"Well for now maybe we should…" Naru started to say but suddenly the world was very blurred and his voice was fading. I felt my eyes slip closed and suddenly all I could see was black.

**Naru POV**

I was busy trying to think of what we could do next as a course of action. It didn't help that we had very limited information on this case.

I noticed Mai looked like she was drifting off, I was about to reprimand her when she suddenly slumped forward and it could be seen that she was unconscious.

"Mai!" Everyone in the room shouted except for Lin and me of course.

It surprised me to see that Ms Hara was the first to jump up to Mai's aid, though I understand that they are now friends so it should not continue to surprise me. I guess it will take some adjusting to see them as friends instead of the rivals they once were.

Anyway, almost as soon as Mai had slumped down she seemed to sit back up again though her eyes were still closed. She brushed Ms Hara off and opened her eyes but instead of her warm brown eyes they had changed to a blue colour that was maybe one shade lighter than my own eyes.

"Who are you?" I heard Monk yell at the spirit clearly possessing Mai.

In response Mai's face split into a giant grin and she held out her hand to Monk who was now in front of her.

"I'm Eugene Davis, pleasure to meet you," The voice was Mai's but the name that passed her lips shocked me beyond belief as well as the rest of the occupants of the room.

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><p><strong>Thats all for this chapter, I hope it was worth the wait! The plot ponies are back now thanks to my friend so the next chapter shoulnt be too late though it will most likely have to wait till after my holiday where I might not have internet but I will have my laptop so I will type up the next chapters in my free time I will post them when I come back...I think that made sense xD<strong>

**Story Idea 1 for your votes:**

**Different Beginnings- Olivia Davis is really Mai Taniyama. In this role reversal series of chapters with secrets and a dead twin sister. While a normal high school student Naru AKA Kazuya Shibuya accidently finds himself a part of the team. **

**Story Idea 2 for your votes:**

**The boy in the dream- After years of searching Naru is finally able to put his brother at rest and will do so after returning to London. But a case gets in the way and for closure for the team Naru agrees to one last case. With hauntings more violent than the others the ghost hunt team stumble across truths, secrets, lies and mysterious deaths surrounding the local hospital. However while investigating Naru and Mai stumble upon blasts from their pasts. Can things get more complicated?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi (Hides for being gone for so long) I'm so sorry! I really am! I lost track of time due to various life drama and then before I knew it holiday was over and college started and I had so much coursework I nearly died. **

**Now I'm sure you are thinking "How are you gonna make this up to us? We have been very patient and deserve a reward!" You are all right and I have a reward in mind. First of all because I have over 100 reviews (wow guys I was expecting like 2 when I first posted this) I have decided you can do a Q&A session with the characters from my story. Depending on how many I get I will either make them a chapter of answering or I will make it just a added bit to the authors note in the next chapter. **

**Another reward, I am working on 12 one-shots, short stories and all the last chapters of Speak! and I will be posting them as the 12 days of Christmas uploaded each day leading up to Christmas. The first post will be on the 13 of December and there will be an upload of something each day. Its gonna be fun guys and I have it all planned out and I will keep posting this time! **

**Finally, (yes this extra long AN is almost over) If you want to see funny pics uploaded and see continuous updates of when chapters or one-shots will be released follow me and my friend on Twitter at Kitty&Peanut ( KittyPeanut2). It would mean a lot to me and it means you dont have to wonder about updates for months without a word from me!**

**So yeah on with the story! **

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><p>Chapter 8<p>

Recap-

_"I'm Eugene Davis, pleasure to meet you," The voice was Mai's but the name that passed her lips shocked me beyond belief as well as the rest of the occupants of the room. _

End of Recap-

**Naru POV**

The room was silent. You could have heard a pin drop should someone have the mind to do so.

"Wow tough crowd…" Gene said in Mai's voice while surveying the crowd.

"Gene…Why are you here?" I said while I frowned slightly at the way he was standing and looking around.

"Noll!" He shouted before running towards me and launching himself onto my lap.

"Gene get off me," I growled under my breath.

"Aww but Noll I missed you and didn't you miss me?" He asked me blinking Mai's big beautiful brown eyes at me.

I was about to retort a rather sharp answer but was stopped in my tracks when I felt a pair of lips land on my cheek, it only took me a moment to realise the lips belonged to the currently possessed Mai.

"See I missed you thiiiis much!" Gene exclaimed after jumping back up and out of arms reach.

"Right, as fabulous as it is to watch Mai harass Naru, what are you here for Mr Davis?" Monk asked after finally snapping out of his shock.

"Please call me Gene, Mr Davis is my stuck up twin brother," Gene said and smiled in Naru's direction. The gang all laughed at this even Lin had a slight smirk, I obviously found no amusement in it.

"Ok, Gene but why are you here?" It was Ayako this time who decided to ask the purpose of my idiot brother's visit.

"Geez, none of you want to just chat is all about work, I think Naru is infecting your brain." Gene muttered more to himself though we could all hear him and again I was not amused.

"Forgive us Gene we just worry about Mai's safety, being possessed isn't a healthy thing you know," John, ever the peace keeper, explained our rush.

"Oh right don't worry 'bout it, I practically live in Mai's head so possessing her shouldn't give her any bad side effects." Gene said smiling at the friendly priest. I can't believe Gene is so close to Mai when they have never even met in person and never will. _Well it does make sense that they are close after all Mai is in love with him. She is going to be really sad when he moves on_ I thought.

"Still all the same I would prefer to have normal Mai back," Monk said and the looked sad with the rest of the group as they thought about the _real _real Mai. Not the one that doesn't smile or talk.

"Right well I came to warn some of you, I would have just told Mai but knowing her she would forget or not tell you she was in danger just so you wouldn't worry," Gene said. _That's true_.

"Mai is in danger?" Monk shouted and jumped up from his seat.

"Not just Mai this time." Gene said finally looking calm and worried.

"The ghost in this house is strong and for the most part is blocking me but I was able to find out that everyone is in danger except for Lin and Yasuhara, I can't tell why though," Gene said looking apologetic…which on Mai's face looked adorable.

"Gene, I might have mentioned this to you when you were alive, but I don't think I said this enough," I spoke up after Gene's grim announcement. I looked around the group to see everyone's face expectant, including Mai's face. It clicked what they were expecting they thought I was going to say something mushy and full of feelings for my dearly departed (though not too departed) brother. How wrong they all are. "You are actually as useful as a chocolate fireguard," I said looking dead serious.

"Aww Noll I may be useless in your eye's but at least you got to see Mai's smile," Gene said making Mai smile nicely at me…I guess it is nice to see her aga- "Even if it is really me," Gene finished, and he killed the moment by opening his mouth.

"Anyway one last thing before I go, you know what weird?" Gene asked everyone with a serious face.

"About the ghost?" Asked Ayako, by her standards it was a logical question.

"No, about possessing a girl when you are a boy spirit," Gene said still looking thoughtful before he lifted Mai's hands and clasped her…chest.

"BOOBS!" Gene shouted " Seriously it's so weird, I have boobs right now and damn have they grown over the past two years! I'm wearing a skirt too," Gene continued oblivious or ignoring the death glares he was receiving from Monk, Ayako and I.

He continued to hold Mai's chest while twirling around in her skirt causing the skirt to flair out and…let's just say Mai has nice underwear.

"Naru," Monk said with barely controlled temper "Get him out of here before I exorcise him myself!"

"Fine, spoilsports!" Gene shouted before sitting Mai down in her seat and leaving her body.

**Mai's POV**

I woke up on the sofa in base with everyone staring at me. I made my pad and pen fly over to me with my PK and just wrote a large question mark, hoping they would get that I was very confused as to what just happened.

All I got for an answer was Yasu laughing his arse off and Masako giggling behind her sleeve. John looked rather red in the face and Ayako and Monk both looked ready to kill someone and not each other for once. Lin looked rather impassive as per usual.

Naru just looked at me…was his face slightly pinkish or was it just the light…gotta be the light. Finally Naru spoke up but what he said just confused me further.

"Mai, after this case…I'm burning all of you skirts."

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><p><strong>That's it this time. The next chapter will be part of the 12 days of Christmas thing I mentioned up there ^<strong>

**So yeah all I can say is I'm so so so sorry and if anyone is still with me THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL HONESTLY! **

**Please review even if it is to shout at me for not updating until this late.**


	9. Chapter 9

**On the first day of Christmas Kitty gave to you! Chapter 9 of Speak!**

**Sup guys! So it's now 12 days before Christmas and I will be uploading something everyday either a chapter of Speak or a one-shot depends on what I have finished in my storage system of stories. **

**I got a few things to day first:**

**To guest (Angel): Thanks for the review! Reviews from guests make me smile just as much as other review...and bounce around my room doing a happy dance.**

**To guest (LOVENARUMAI): Thanks for your review I updated soon just like you asked!**

**To guest (BrokenBlackCat): *Gasp* I am not a pervert! Gene is! xD lol Thank you for the review. **

**To guest (Narcisstically in luv): Me and my friend squirrel had a giggle trying to say Narcisstically...we failed! xD Thanks for the review.**

**Finally to Alexkitkat: GOOD LUCK IN YOUR FINALS TOMORROW! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you like this one too. **

**EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY REVIEWERS! I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOU HONESTLY MAKE ME WANT TO WRITE MORE WITH EVERY REVIEW I GET!**

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><p>Chapter 9<p>

Recap-

_Naru just looked at me…was his face slightly pinkish or was it just the light…gotta be the light. Finally Naru spoke up but what he said just confused me further. _

"_Mai, after this case…I'm burning all of you skirts. _

End of Recap-

Ok now I was mad! What right does he have to say that to me when I don't even know what happened?

I walked up to Naru and quickly wrote a note for only him to see.

"**Naru if you don't tell me what happened, everyone here is gonna find out about Mr Snuggles**,"

I saw Naru's eyes widen slightly and I'm sure his pale face got even paler.

"Ask Gene to tell you how he molested you in front of everyone," Naru answered.

I'm gonna beat the shit out of that bastard when I see him in the dreamscape. Wait, Gene can't have come here just to molest me, why was he here in the first place?

**"Naru what was his first purpose here?" **I wrote him another note.

"He just wanted us to know that almost everyone is in danger but he doesn't know why because he is as useful as a chocolate teapot,"

"Of course you would use teapot in your example," I signed this and made Yasu laugh.

"Mai, I have decided I don't care what you just signed," Lie, I could see it in his eyes that he was dying to know, "Anyway Miss Matsuzaki and Miss Hara, walk around and try to sense where this ghost is, Father Brown, Monk and Mai go and check all the temperatures and make sure all the cameras are still set up correct. Finally Yasu go through your research again. Go!"

Me, Monk and John headed out to do our jobs. I couldn't wait to hang out with Monk and John just like the old times on cases.

"So Mai, although you put up a fight a first, you're enjoying this case now right?" Monk asked me.

I didn't bother writing anything down since if I signed John could translate for me. I signed out "Well I guess it's not too bad," and John told Monk what I was signing.

"Ha! Not too bad? You may be expressionless as usual but I can see it, there is a light in your eyes that was missing before but it's back now." Monk said looking at me with a really happy face.

"It's true Mai, your eyes looked sort of dead before but now they look so bright, it's really great" John said looking at me with the same face as Monk.

I must have had them more worried than I thought these past 2 years, they look so relieved that my eyes are not 'dead' anymore. I will have to check a mirror soon to see if they are right.

We finished our jobs quickly and reported back to base with the others. Masako said that she couldn't detect the ghost because she seemed to be hiding. Yasu was half way through saying that the web couldn't tell him anything else when the lights began to flicker and eventually go out. We could all hear banging sounds on the walls and ceiling but could not see anything in front of us. The room was pitch black as all the monitors had gone off as well as the lights.

I could hear the team panicking and asking everyone to call out there names but all the voices mixed together in chaos. I couldn't find my whistle and remembered I had left it on the monitor table and it would be impossible to get to it in the pitch black. I could hear all the others screaming at me asking if I was ok and I had no way to tell them I was fine. I could bang on the door next to me but they would mistake it for the banging of the ghost.

We waited in the dark with the others still shouting though now they had moved on to shouting charms and mantras. The lights eventually came back on and the banging stopped the others looked around and were pleased to see that I was still alive and ok.

I looked around checking that every one of my friends was still ok and soon noticed one person was missing from the group and in their place was a message written in what looked like blood.

The message was short and simple, it said "_I will free him from the pain and suffering of life"_ and it was written right behind Naru's empty chair.

At that moment something in me broke, my mask fell to pieces and my face crumpled into a tear streaked mess.

The ghost had Naru and was going to kill him.

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><p><strong>Sorry it's so short but it was the best place to stop and leave you waiting for tomorrows update! All of the next few chapters will be short because I have cut the last few long chapters into more short easy to update over about 6 days chapters. Only about 6 chapters left of this story guys! <strong>

**So see ya all in tomorrows update! Bye Bye! Please review if you can!**


	10. Chapter 10

**On the second day of Christmas Kitty gave to you! The tenth chapter of Speak! **

**Not much to say other than thanks for the reviews on the last chapter and enjoy! P.S My friend Squirrel says Hello!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 10<p>

Recap-

_ At that moment something in me broke, my mask fell to pieces and my face crumpled into a tear streaked mess_

_ The ghost had Naru and was going to kill him._

End of Recap-

I was crying but it was still silent, my face was showing the worry and panic I was feeling. What was going on Naru couldn't go missing he was the leader! I was always the one who went missing, sometimes it was Masako but never Naru.

Suddenly everything started happening around me and it was like I was stuck in slow motion while everyone else whirled around. Ayako was trying to talk to me and get me to snap out of it while Lin took charge and ordered Yasu and Monk to go over the blueprints of the house. Masako was asked to meditate and try to locate the ghost, in case it could lead to Naru and John was sitting next to her praying for Naru's safe return.

As shocked as everyone was by Naru's disappearance and my sudden facial reanimation they didn't stop for a second to blink they got straight on with their jobs and tried to find him. I had to snap out of it I had to do something. My mind was slowly starting to move again and I was about to help with the blueprints hoping my instincts could help me to find Naru quicker than searching this entire house.

I stood up looking as determined as ever…really looking determined this time because once again my face was working with my emotions. But just as I took a step away from the sofa I had collapsed into when the shock of Naru missing hit me, I fell back down and my world slowly went grey then black.

*DREAM/ASTRAL PROJECTION LAND*

_ I woke up and knew I was in the dreamscape but this time I was still in the house as it looks to this day. I realised pretty quickly that I was astral projecting. _

_The house in front of me disappeared and before I knew it I was in an unfamiliar dark room, it was small and covered in old rubbish. I noticed there were no windows in this room and the only light was coming from an old bare light bulb that was covered in cobwebs and dust._

_The clutter reminded me of the loft in the house I used to live in with my mother. My mother enjoyed hoarding lots of old things, a lot of my old toys were put in the loft if I out grew them and lots of other stuff that she enjoyed keeping including about 3 old Christmas trees. _

_I decided to poke around to see what I could see. I found a lot of old stuff, like really old, it must have belonged to the first owners which would mean they belonged to that woman I saw in my dream._

_I was still looking around looking for clues as to why I was here when I saw a shadow in the corner. I was sure it would be the shadow ghost, I was sure she was here to rip my soul apart and drag me to hell with her. I was sure this was how I was going to die…then I heard a groan. _

_It wasn't the feminine groan of a ghost woman wielding a knife either, it was the masculine groan of a man who had either been injured badly or had a few too many pints at the pub and was now the owner of a thumping new headache. I looked at the shadow closer and decided it was the first option. _

"_NARU!" I shouted his name and launched myself towards him. He was alive! I knew he was because if he was dead I wouldn't be astral-projecting to him._

_Naru looked up at me and I could see he was roughed up at bit. He seemed to be chained to some kind of old pipe and had a bad looking cut on his leg, his previously flawless face was covered in dust and dirt, somehow through all of that he still looked ridiculously handsome._

"_Am I dreaming?" Naru asked me. Now that made me giggle the ever powerful and fearless Naru thought he was dreaming of me. Wow that has to be taken as a compliment. _

"_No Naru, I'm dreaming, just like with Masako all then years ago," I said and smiled at him. _

"_You can talk in the astral plane?" Naru asked me…or course he is chained to a wall and all he wants to do is research me._

"_Yup always have been able to but that is so not the problem right now," I said as I looked for a key to the chain but came up empty._

"_It's nice to hear you again Mai…" Naru said and I could almost hear the unsaid "one last time," tagged on to the end. _

_I couldn't help myself as I blushed like a fool at what he said to me. Seeing this only made him smirk just like in the good old days. _

"_I see you can blush in the astral plane as well," He commented, he just had to comment didn't he? That only made the blush worse, I'm sure it was spreading down my neck in a very unattractive shade of lobster red._

_I was about to shout at him for being a jerk but I saw his smirk turn into a slight smile and a slight smile from Naru is worth all the embarrassment in the world._

_I decided to take another look around while waiting for my blush to recede but all I saw was what I saw the first time dust and cobwebs and piles or random old crap. _

"_Where are we Naru?" I ask when I finally decided to turn back to him. _

_He continued staring at me for a moment as if he was trying to absorb everything about my looks into him memory then he finally said "I don't know the damn ghost woman knocked me out then the next thing I know I'm waking up to this room and you standing there shouting my name,"_

"_That reminds me how are you still alive…NOT THAT I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT, I AM! But she wrote in blood that she would 'free you from the pain of life'" I said putting quote marks around the phrase the ghost wrote on the wall. _

_Naru looked faintly amused at my random outburst in the middle of what I was saying before continuing on in his normal monotone voice "She mumbled something about helping the other lost souls before disappearing and leaving me here. She cut my leg so I passed out again after waking up here the first time." Naru was clearly not happy about being knocked out twice._

"_Listen, Mai. This is getting too dangerous. I have no way of knowing who she might target next and she is obviously insane so I can't predict a pattern," Naru said looking away from my eyes…no. No, no, no, no I can see where he is taking this and I can't let him._

"_Leave me here Mai. Get everyone together and get them out safely, you can't find me in time and I don't want any of you to get hurt as well." He said it. I was frozen for a minute, he wanted me to leave him behind? How could he ask me to do that? I can't leave him behind not like he left me, it hurts too much to lose someone and this time it wouldn't be for a few years it would be forever. I would never see him again._

"_What? Naru? NO! I am never going to leave you alone here! I WON'T LEAVE YOU TO DIE!" I was shouting at him now tear in the corners of my eyes just waiting to break free and run freely down my cheeks. _

"_Mai you have no choice, you can't find me in time and you could get hurt," In the back of my mind I faintly noted that this time it wasn't the team he was concerned about it was me specifically but the front of my mind was busy screaming "NO!" a thousand time. _

_I noticed my body was starting to fade out and Naru was looking at me with a broken but confident look. He knew this could be the last time we saw each other but he was doing what he thought was best. _

"_NO! NARU!" I shouted at the top of my voice but it turned into a silent scream of his name as I bolted upright awake in the base. The others were still looking at blueprints and didn't notice me as I silently wiped my tears and slip out of base without relaying Naru's message. _

_If he was determined for us to be safe then I was determined for him to leave this house with us or I would die trying._

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><p><em><em>**Ok that's it for today but I will be back tomorrow for the third day or Christmas. Please review and if you want to know updates in the new year follow me and Squirrel on twitter at KittyPeanut2**

**So till tomorrow keep rocking!**


	11. Chapter 11

**On the third day of Christmas Kitty gave to you! Chapter Eleven of Speak!**

**Hey guys so this is the 11th chapter and I hope you like it. That's all really so enjoy. Follow on twitter for updates at KittyPeanut2**

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><p>Chapter 11<p>

Recap-

_If he was determined for us to be safe then I was determined for him to leave this house with us or I would die trying._

End of recap-

I was wandering aimlessly through the halls trying to keep the look of broken despair from my face but it wasn't as easy as when I was emotionless and I didn't have to try and keep emotion off my face.

I couldn't believe Naru would want us to leave him there. I could feel tear building up in my eyes so I turned my face to the ceiling to try and avoid them streaming down my already tear streaked face. I felt the tears recede from the edge of my eyes for now so I opened my eyes while keeping my head tilted back.

I stopped.

I saw a weird square on the ceiling , you would completely miss it if you were not looking specifically for it…or staring up at the ceiling like an idiot…like me.

It took me about 5 minutes of staring at the square before I realised that it looked sort of like the entrance to a loft area…maybe…

I ran down to the kitchen to find the owner of the house and I was lucky that he was there sorting out lunch for his niece.

"**Oh! Hello, can I help you with anything?" **Mr Hill asked me when I walked in.

I pulled my pad out of my pocket and started writing "**Hi, I was wondering if you happened to have a large stepladder I could use to get into the loft area?" **I wrote and handed the note over to him.

"**Yes, I have one in the shed outside but can I ask why you need it for?" **He asked pointing out the backdoor to the edge of the wooden shed outside that had clearly seen better days.

"**I need to check the loft area for reason that I can't fully explain due to lack of time. Please can I borrow the stepladder and go in the loft?" **I quickly wrote and handed the note to him.

"**Sure, go ahead!"** Mr Hill said with a huge smile on his face.

I smiled at him and then smiled at Anne who was sitting at the kitchen table eating her sandwiches, she smiled slightly back at me. It looks like she is slowly getting over her parents deaths, that's good she is too young to be depressed forever.

I headed out to the shed and after a short search I found the stepladder. It would be just long enough to reach the loft. I hefted it up and ran up through the house to the square in the ceiling.

I opened the ladder up under the square and started to climb up. Once I got to the square I gave it one sharp push and it flew open on its hinges.

I hoisted myself up into the loft and what I saw made me gasp.

There were no windows and the only thing lighting the room was a bare light bulb that was covered in cobwebs and dust. This was the room!

I found it, I had managed to find the room Naru was in and now I had to find Naru himself.

I started digging my way through the boxes and trying to find my way to the corner Naru was in. I was hoping the ghost hadn't been back since my dream and decided to end him. I had to hope that he was still alive.

I managed to fight my way to the corner Naru was chained in and saw him slumped down on the floor. I was so worried that I was too late. I feared that the ghost had already killed him and he I would walk up to him and his bright blue eyes would be dull and lifeless.

I steeled my nerves and rushed over to him. I shook his shoulder…probably a little harder than necessary but I was worried so you can't blame me.

Naru gave out a slight groan and looked up at me, I couldn't help but to smile in relief that he was still alive.

"Are you astral projecting again?" Naru asked his voice sounding slightly rough and croaky.

I knew he wouldn't be able to see a note in this dim light so I simply shook my head to indicate no and gave him a big brilliant smile. He looked slightly shocked for a while before everything went to hell.

A loud piecing scream could be heard through the whole house but you could clearly tell it was starting from this point in the loft. She was here. The hatch that leads to the loft snapped shut and I could hear the resounding thud of the ladder falling over.

I could hear the rest of the team pounding on the hatch with what I assumed was the ladder.

"Mai, if you are up there pound on something three times," I heard Monk shout up.

I looked around and found an old broken chair leg and hit it against anything I could three times. The team carried on shouting and pounding but they were clearly not getting anywhere.

I was starting to panic that Naru and I would not be able to get out of here when she appeared in front of us. I quickly used the chair leg to smack the lock off the chain and free Naru.

She was holding a sharp shiny knife and had the look of murder in her eyes as she approached us.

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><p><strong>That's all for today. Tomorrow will be chapter 12 for the fourth day of Christmas. Please review and all that good stuff! <strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**On the fifth day of Christmas Kitty gave to you! The twelfth chapter of speak!**

**Sorry I didn't put this up yesterday, it just wasn't ready yet and instead I uploaded a one-shot called Truth or Dare? check it out if you haven't already and review on it please.**

**BTW this is the second to last chapter of speak and the last chapter (epilogue) should be tomorrows update. sad to see this story go really. My next story will be the one that got the most votes and that was...The Boy in the Dream! Anyway read on now and please review! **

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><p>Chapter 12<p>

Recap-

_She was holding a sharp shiny knife and had the look of murder in her eyes as she approached us._

End of recap-

She started mumbling to herself. It gradually grew in volume until she was nearly shouting the words "NO!" and "HOW?" at me. While she was just screaming and not slashing I took the opportunity to help Naru up from the dusty floor.

Naru seemed to be getting more and more annoyed at the ghosts constant shrieking and finally decided to interrupt the tantrum.

"How what?" Naru asked the female ghost.

In answer the ghost just glared at me and hissed in a voice that could only be described as inhuman "You!"

"What has Mai done to you?" Naru again asked the question that I wish I had the voice to speak.

"You have begun to heal yourself even though your circumstances have not changed," The ghostly woman said again though she was more talking to me even if Naru was the one asking.

"Heal herself? What circumstances?" Naru asked the ghost in more of a murmur than his normal confidant voice.

"Yes! Life is painful and love harms everyone at some time, the only freedom is death!" The ghost said before laughing manically .

"So? Life is painful but there is always another option rather than death," Naru said to the ghost. I agreed and I wish I could talk right now to ask the ghost what pain Naru was supposedly in before she cut his leg.

"Also," continued Naru "what pain was I in before you cut my fucking leg?" Naru said to the ghost in his most evil calm anger voice…wait he just asked what I wanted to ask…HE IS IN MY HEAD!

The ghost just laughed before answering with "You were still grieving,"

I saw Naru flinch but answer in a steady and strong voice "Grieving the loss of a loved one is normal but the pain lessens day by day…we never truly forget those who were dear to us but we learn to live on with their memories with us," I stared at Naru in awe and wondered if that is how he really felt about Gene or if he truly would be in pain forever.

The ghost woman simply scoffed at him and said in a voice that sounded like she was explaining to a simple child "No you were grieving the loss of your true love who you believed loved another. JUST. LIKE. ME!" the ghost woman screeched the final three words and I'm sure the house shook slightly. "That's why a took you first," The ghost added.

Once what she had said registered with my brain I was slightly shocked…was she talking about me or had Naru met someone while in England?

"Anyway," Naru said clearly changing the subject from him "Why attack the priest and the medium?"

"Well," It was almost like the ghost went into gossip mode...it was weird. "She loves him but he is a priest and doesn't want to hurt him or herself and he actually loves her back and doesn't know how to tell her he quit the priesthood a year ago. He fears she might punish herself for the choice he made for her. Love and life are very painful and only death is the solution, all of you must die to free you from the pain of unrequited love," Man this chick was messed up.

"This is why I hate you!" the ghost suddenly went back to violent mode and pointed the knifes sharp tip in my direction "You are slowly healing even though the one you love still thinks you love another! You even got your smile back!"

She was stuck in some kind of major tantrum she turned the knife to Naru next and continued "You are still missing your love because even if you work with her you believe she loves another, so you are still broken and should die first!" Ok now I'm sure this ghost chick is talking about me! I knew my eyes must be as wide a saucers right now and my mouth must be hanging open.

I snapped out of my shock to see the ghost charging towards Naru's heart with the knife She was shouting "DIE! DIE! DIE!"

I had to ask fast I couldn't let Naru leave me forever. Two years was long enough and look how broken I was when he was just on the other side of the world…a simple plane ride away. What would happen to me if he was on the other side of life? He can't die!

"NARU!" His name burst from my throat forming the one word I had been longing to say from the moment I saw him.

I didn't even think I just acted. I jumped in front of Naru's body and the knife dug deep into my shoulder. The woman was aiming for Naru's heart and his heart came to the where my shoulder is because I am so much shorter than Naru. For once in my life I was so glad to be short.

I could feel the woman remove the knife painfully and I felt my blood streaming out. I started to fall down to the floor, my legs no longer able to hold my weight. Naru's arms wrapped around me and gently placed me on his lap on the ground.

"Now you are healed completely? Without death? NOOOOOO!" The crazy woman was screaming but I ignored her. If I kept losing blood at this rate I wasn't going to last much longer and Naru couldn't escape with this crazy ghost here. If I was to die here I wanted to finally say something to Naru.

"Naru," I said my voice sounding weak both from 2 years of not using it and from the loss of blood "It was always you, I may not have been very smart back them but I knew there were differences between the two of you," I reached my good arm up to his face and smiled at him, "Your eyes glow brighter when you smile, Gene's stay the same. You may not be nice all the time but you show kindness in your own weird way. I love you Naru and I always will no matter what happens to me," I finished with a cough.

"Mai this is sounding a lot like last words, you are not going to die, I won't let you," Naru said to me while stroking my hair. "I have always loved you but I couldn't accept it, too many girls in the past tried to use me to get to Gene, I couldn't believe that a girl and nice as you would ever love me." Naru gave me a rare smile and like I said his eyes did glow a brighter blue-purple than Gene's.

Naru looked like he was about to lean down and kiss me but the ghost woman screamed loudly and made me flinch which sent a shooting pain up my arm.

"How can you be healed without death? It's impossible!" The ghost was screaming causing the whole room to shake and hurt my wound even more.

"Because as cheesy as this sounds" I managed to rasp out.

"Love conquers all!" Me and Naru both said, his voice adding volume to my weak one and creating a loud echo.

I could feel Naru summoning his PK so I began to use my good hand to funnel his PK through me to hit the ghost, if my theory is correct then this should allow Naru to not be hurt and I should be able to survive…of course this theory doesn't count me having a hole in my shoulder…this could be bad.

The sudden surge of energy through me hurts my other arm and my shoulder throbs as more blood pours out of me into Naru's lap and on the floor. The blood loss started to hit me badly and I started to blank out to Naru shouting at Lin to call an ambulance and the team shouting my name as they burst through the loft door.

_Goodbye Naru, I love you _was my last thought before everything faded to black.

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><p><strong>That's it for today! I'm so evil leaving this cliffhanger! muhahahahaha<strong>

**Hopefully tomorrow will be the last chapter for you. If not another one-shot. After this is complete it will be one-shots for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas so it you want to know when they come out add me to the author alerts so you get to know. So bye bye guys! Please review cuz I love all of the reviews I get. They inspire me to write faster. **


	13. Chapter 13 (Epilogue)

**On the sixth day of Christmas Kitty gave to you! The final chapter of Speak!**

**This is the last chapter and epilogue of Speak! It has been a super fun time writing this and I'm so amazed I got to over 200 reviews, when I first started I thought I would get like 5 but instead you guys reviews and faved and all that other great stuff. I will be writing one-shots for the rest of the 12 days of Christmas but in the New year I will be working on The Boy in the Dream. January exams come first though. So thanks to everyone who stuck by till the end and enjoy this final chapter. Please review I will enjoy reading what you thought of the whole story.**

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><p>Chapter 13<p>

Recap-

Goodbye Naru, I love you_ was my last thought before everything faded to black. _

End of recap-

2 Months after the case ended

Normal POV

It had been 2 months since Mai and Naru destroyed the twisted soul in the elegant house. Naru was still mourning his loss. He spent most of the 2 months in his office just staring at a picture of them together. The others tried to console him but they just didn't understand.

A knock was heard on his office door, he didn't bother telling them to enter because quite frankly he didn't want to see anyone right now.

"Come on Naru! You can't mope forever, you know that they wouldn't want you to," said a female voice.

Mai walked into the office with her shoulder still bandaged up but at least her arm was out of the sling now.

"But…he didn't deserve to be killed that way," Naru argued against his girlfriend.

"Naru…He was a bear, a TEDDY bear," Mai pointed out.

*FLASHBACK*

_ The gang had just sent Ayako with Mai in an ambulance and decided to follow behind in the van. Naru was worried about Mai's condition but the group decided having an extra doctor in the ambulance would be better than sending someone else._

_ The all arrived at the hospital to see Ayako with a grim look on her face._

_ "What's the problem?" Monk asked her. _

_ "She needs at least 2 pints of blood but we don't have any of her type in storage and she has no living family members to donate," Ayako said with tears swimming in her eyes._

_ "What's her blood type?" Masako spoke up from the back of the group. _

_ "It's AB negative, the rarest blood type." Ayako said._

_ "I have AB negative blood type," It was Naru who spoke up._

_ The group looked over at him and their eyes fell on his cut leg that had stopped bleeding but had obviously left him missing a fair amount of blood. _

_ "To take 2 pints from you alone would kill you with the state you're in," Ayako said in a voice that conveyed just how hopeless she felt at this point. _

_ "What about just one pint from him?" Masako asked in a quiet voice. _

_ "It wouldn't be enough to save Mai's life," Ayako said._

_ "I will donate the other pint, I also have AB negative," Masako said._

_ The group looked at each other and Monk gave a hollow laugh "Of course the rarest blood type and our rag-tag group of ghost hunters happen to have 3 people with it," He said with a hopeful smile. _

_ The gang split up, Ayako took Naru and Masako to have the blood taken out, it was tested just to be sure and then quickly taken up to Mai in the emergency room where she was quickly worked on by the surgeons._

_ Naru also had a few stiches put in the cut on his leg while he was waiting for Mai's doctor to come out and tell them the news. _

_ It was a few hours later when the doctor came up to the group and told them the news, Mai got the blood just in time and would make a full recovery. _

_ The group took turns in pairs to stay with Mai, Lin and Naru offered to go last as they wanted to pack all the equipment up and move out of the house before it got too dark out. _

_ Naru and Lin had just arrived at the base when Naru noticed how everything was thrown around._

_ "The ghost was throwing things apparently while me and Mai were pissing her off in the loft," Naru noted before starting to sift through the papers and other thrown items. His fingers brushed against something soft._

_ He moved aside the papers to find his dear teddy…no, his dear friend torn cruelly with a knife, pieces of stuffing littered the floor. Naru was horrified but picked up the pieces and stored them in a bag. Mr Snuggles would get a proper burial later after he checked on Mai. _

_ He and Lin got into the van and headed back to the hospital. Naru sat next to Mai's bed while she was still asleep silently mourning his loss. _

_It took a few hours but soon Mai woke up slightly groggy and in pain but still alive. Everyone told her what happened and Naru explained why he was in such a bad mood to everyone. They felt bad for Naru…after they were done laughing at him. Naru had been standoff-ish after that for months._

*FLASHBACK OVER*

Mai's POV

I was happy after I woke up and found my friends surrounding me and when I heard it was my best friend and the love of my life who saved me, but that was 2 months ago and now I'm just getting annoyed. Why can't Naru move on?

I was still standing in his office and he refused to even look up at me. This was the final straw.

"Fine Naru, you want to be left alone? Then I'm leaving," I said before placing a wrapped gift on his desk.

I left and started getting my things together to leave and go home for the day when arms wrapped themselves around my waist.

"I am sorry Mai, it's just…Gene gave me Mr Snuggles when I was 6 for a Christmas present and now Gene is gone and so is Mr Snuggles…" Naru trailed off but I got his message, the bear meant more than we all knew.

"Did you open the present I left on your desk?" I asked and he shook his head before leaving to open the present.

I knew the exact moment he found it and opened it because not 5 minutes later he was crushing me in a hug and kissing me ferociously.

"You fixed him," He said and it was true I had hand stitched all the pieces of the bear together while I was stuck in the hospital for a few days. The poor thing looked like Frankenstein's monster with all the stitching across it but it was still in one piece now.

"Yup," I said after he stopped kissing me "Merry early Christmas Naru,"

The rest of the team burst in with Ayako and Monk arguing about where Ayako wants to go for their next date. They got together, weirdly enough, while they were worrying about me. John and Masako also confessed to each other as they were worried about ending up in a situation like me and Naru where one of them is hurt badly by a ghost.

The gang also found out that Lin had been dating Madoka for a year already and she would be visiting soon to see him.

In the end everyone was happy and SPR would be open for business and waiting for your ghost story to walk through the door.

"Hello? Is this SPR? I need your help with a ghost problem."

"Come in and have a seat!" I said smiling at the shaken woman after all if anyone can help her it's us.

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><p><strong>That's it! All finished now! I hope you will continue to read one-shots and new stories I write in the future and thank you to all my readers. I would list you all by name but there is so many of you I will just say thank you to everyone who read reviewed faved and followed this story. I love all of you and I would love it if you reviewed to tell me what you thought. Bye guys! See you next story!<strong>


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